


The start of something beutiful

by saltygay



Series: the rain washes our footsteps away as we head toward the stars [1]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, but then fluffy, darkish at times, for the gift exchange, rainward!!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-20
Updated: 2014-12-20
Packaged: 2018-03-02 13:03:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2812976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saltygay/pseuds/saltygay
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For the aos gift exchange on tumblr</p>
<p>He hears the footsteps but doesn't know this will be the start of something he could never of imagined, the beginning of a new life.</p>
<p>NOTE - EDITTED</p>
            </blockquote>





	The start of something beutiful

**Author's Note:**

> for the aos gift exchange on tumblr. I hope you like the rainward
> 
> you said you like fluffy and you like rainward so you got some dark bits and fluffy bits
> 
> hope its ok, I had to rewrite it cause of a stupid laptop
> 
> Editted on 10/05/16

Hearing the light footsteps he can tell it’s a woman. She could be SHIELD or HYDRA but he just doesn’t care anymore. Doesn’t care which are here to end him or watch him die. He had spent so long fighting the monster in the pit of his stomach and back of his mind, a dark and twisted thing that wanted pain, but it had never been good enough. Not for Skye, not for anyone.

Nothing happens, no one speaks and he always envisioned his death as something so much more – he isn’t going to go out silently. “Got a drink on you? Whiskey preferably, dead man’s last request and all.”

The weak smirk on his lips falls in surprise when he receives a reply “I never thought you that type of man, Agent Ward.” He looks up to see Raina, looking pristine in her flower dress and if he was naïve he might say angelic. Neither of them were angels though, both sinners trying to dress themselves up as more.

The damn obelisk is clutched in her hand and she’s just there stood above him so he does the only thing he can do – offer her a charming smile “Drill not done yet? I thought you would be down there soon as you could.”

She’s watching him, he realises, a curious light in her eyes and he supposes she’s used to men looking up at her. She has that power, to leave you in awe of her brilliance and beauty. “It’s done, I just wasn’t going down there without you” he barks a harsh laugh, interrupted by a bloody cough from the bullets in his side. “Pretty sure only the worthy can go down there love, and I’m far from that. Regular human here”

There’s a smile on her lips like she knows everything about him while he knows nothing but she’s always been the smartest wherever she went. “I’m not surprised you don’t know but you are so much more than human” he shifts in place, winces at the pain it brings, but huffs a breathless laugh “Knew you were crazy.”

She tilts her head at him slightly, crouches to be more on level with him “I can explain later, but for now you should come with me. I see it – what Garrett didn’t, what Skye doesn’t. What no one else has. Come with me and find your true self.” She presses the obelisk into his hand before he can stop her and his spine curves up a little as he sucks in air through his teeth, a blast of power hitting him and running through his body like electric.

The thing in the pit of his stomach is fighting, the pain seeming like nothing now, and his thoughts are a disconnected mess but she offers him a hand and his mind quietens “Shall we go?”

He takes her hand.

.

He needs to lean against the wall when they get there, the pain beginning to creep back into his thoughts, and the feeling of home engulfs him. He’s never felt it before, he realises, not truly. He had never felt like this anywhere before. “Still don’t believe me?” she comments casually and his reply is quick “maybe since I actually know where I came from.”

Her all knowing smile is back and she takes the opportunity of them being alone for the first time “There’s a lot you don’t know – I looked into you, Agent Ward, into who you are. From the day we met I saw something more in you, I could feel it even if you didn’t. You didn’t know you were adopted, did you? I did my research while I distracted you with Skye, kept it to myself of course. Garrett didn’t care for special people, people like us.”

She walks around the chamber at a leisurely stroll, like she owns it, before coming back to him. Gently cups his cheek with one small hand and outlines his cheekbone with her thumb. It felt like she was leaving a trail of fire in her wake, power and knowledge sinking into his skin and setting him alike.

“I’m not special” He breathes, breath coming fast and shallow, whether from pain or adrenaline he isn’t sure. Raina cocks her head at him “You’ll see later.” Skye had finally arrived.

.

Skye didn’t know how or why Ward was down here but she had a good guess upon seeing the obelisk in his hand. “You said no more lies” Raina pulls back from Ward and turns to her instead, a fainter smile on her lips “I knew you would come.”

“Someone has to stop you” Skye focuses on the mission, her mission to stop them, gun in hand and head a mess.  “Your whole life, our whole lives have been leading to this moment” Raina glances back at Ward, sharing something with him Skye wasn’t privileged enough to know. “Sorry but I don’t buy into the whole ‘destiny’ thing. I’m taking the obelisk and leaving, there are too many lives at stake. Not that either of you care.”

“You’ve got it wrong. Whitehall, everyone has it all wrong. It doesn’t destroy life, it gives new life. We all finally get to find out what we become” the obelisk glows in Wards hand, lighting up to his confusion. “Both of you stop it now” Skye orders, a desperate tone pushing into her voice.

 “We can’t stop it; none of us can, not now” Raina smiles as the obelisk floats from Ward’s hand to the podium. The walls start to close in on them when it lands and Ward glances around but he doesn’t seem to care with death already a possibility for him and Raina’s at ease while Skye panics in contrast.

.

“It’s so…strange, beautiful” Ward whispers fascinated but unlike he and Raina, the two SHIELD agents are more occupied with stopping it to admire.

“What’s supposed to happen” no one says anything for a moment as it glows but then, only one person here does know. “Something beautiful” Raina finally answers before gas bursts from the crystals knocking them all back. “What in hell was that” Ward chokes out holding his side where Skye shot him, pain bursting from the area.

There’s no opportunity for an answer before they start to be consumed by stone, stone that engulfs them all slowly, all except Trip, and it isn’t Skye that Ward looks at last but Raina.

.

He doesn’t expect to open his eyes, to break out from the darkness, but he does. He’s still in the chamber and the walls are beginning to open again. There’s rubble everywhere and he’s not sure what’s happened.

“Why are you alive and not him” he looks up to see Skye, stood on the opposite side of the chamber with pieces of rock all around them and it’s then he notices the fact Trip’s no longer in there. “I don’t know what—” pain hits him suddenly and he can’t finish, can’t even speak it hurts so much, he keels forward instead, tries to steady himself.

He hears someone swear faintly and metal hit the stone floor but he can’t focus on anything but the overwhelming pain.

.

She’s not sure what she’s seeing but she knows she doesn’t want to stay there, not when his eyes are getting darker by the second and dark veins craw under his skin, the bullets she put in him dropping to the floor.

“Skye?” she turns to see Coulson rushing towards her and she runs to leave the chamber and meet him. “We need to go” she says, worried and scared and full of grief. “What is it? What’s wrong?” he asks, trying to look past her.

“Trips dead and…” the ground shakes slightly under their feet as she glances back to where Ward was slowly catching his breath and regaining his strength.

Coulson follows her line of sight and nods, she can see the question in his eyes of how Ward was there and alive and where Trip was but that was something they would have to deal with later. They needed to go.

//

He can’t breathe, it feels like he’s being torn apart and his heart beat roars in his ears. It all comes to a stop at once and he instinctively knows it to be the calm before a storm, just like he now knows Raina was telling the truth. He climbs up unsteadily and looks for her, seeing her in the dark where she had hidden.

“Raina?” the sound of his own voice surprises him; smooth yet rough and powerful. It sounds different somehow, barely and perhaps not to anyone else but to him it does.

He knows it’s her; the spikes and danger are her as well. Just another part. Her eyes are gold and look at him curiously, as if asking why he’s staring. He just reaches out but pauses, restrains himself, fingers hovering over her skin.

“Can I?” he asks unsurely and after a moment she nods hesitantly, he ghosts his fingers over the spike-like things under her eyes. “Amazing” he breaths and she changes before his eyes to the girl in the flower dress he had always known.

“We should go” he comments after a moment of silence between them “and where to now?” she questions but he has no doubts she has a wealth of places to go. “I have safe houses everywhere” he forces a smile through the pain. It wasn’t even something they had to think about, staying together.

.

He stumbles in the door of the apartment, unable to stand anymore and she takes his arm to help him in to the bed straight down the hall. “Why am I the only one in pain right now?” he groans, falling to the bed “I told you, you’re different.”

“There’s only one room here” he mutters, realising the main fault with using his safe houses. Most of them were for just him. “I’m fine” she insists but he stubbornly shakes his head and holds out a hand “It’s a big bed. I’m a bit of a gentleman, come on” he smiles stupidly up at her.

She laughs as he pulls her down to the bed after receiving no answer “See, big bed” he gloats smugly “fine, but you should rest Grant. There’s a lot to come” no one brings up the use of his first name when so few used it; they were too familiar for last names now. “You too” he mutters back but he’s already out of it and asleep in seconds.She settles properly on the bed with a sigh, facing him, and absently runs her fingers through his short hair “You’ll see everything differently tomorrow.”

.

Raina wakes up to an empty bed where there had been a warm presence not long before; she can hear soft music in the distance and feels content for the first time in a long time.

This wasn’t her life, she knows that, and this wasn’t somewhere she knew either. Ward walks in with a cup and a plate “Sorry for not waking you up, you just seemed really tired. You like coffee?” he places the plate of toast on the bedside table and holds the cup out to her, she takes it gratefully and pats the bed beside her “Of course.”

He drops into the spot as if they did this all the time, sat in bed together having breakfast. “How do you feel?” he asks curiously “Good. You?” she watches him closely, almost cautiously “better…better than I ever have.” he admits, shifting in his place.

“I’m not surprised” she comments and she really isn’t “you said you did research?” he wants to know now, wants to learn what he hadn’t before. She sips her coffee before answering, focussing on the cup. “You were adopted. And you’re not human” she informs.

“Why did I have to go down there? Like you two” he asks because that’s not told him anything he wasn’t already aware of. “I looked at your DNA. You’re half like us and half not. Not like us, not human. That’s why, the inhuman side of you locked your alien side so you had to activate that first” she sighs, it had taken time and consultation to figure out and she still didn’t have all the answers.

.

“We can try to look for answers, to what happened to them” Raina tells him one day, letting him know she would help him find out, but he still isn’t sure if he even wanted to know. One family had been enough for him. “Maybe one day. Now’s just not the time.”

.

He snaps the neck of a man in Chicago without laying a finger on him and Raina looks at him gratefully. Not like he’s a monster, not like she’s scared. Just grateful he saved her life. She thanks him, just a simple thank you. She can see how his hands are shaking.

He finds it amazing. Completely amazing and new and shocking that she doesn’t look at him in disgust or judgement or condemnation.

.

She shoves him against the wall roughly, a petit force of nature, “I don’t care if you can heal, never do that again” she growls and its furious and terrifying. He could probably break it, switch their places but he won’t. “I just stopped them from poisoning you” he replies heatedly, looking down at her. Neither of them are willing to be the first to back down and surrender until she grabs him by his shirt collar and drags him down for a kiss. He picks her up without breaking it and they barely make it to the bed. He lets her have the power.

.

They nearly kill each other. She drags her nails down his chest and he bites down hard at the joint of her shoulder to her neck. It’s more like trying to kill each other than making love, it was rough and merciless and bruising on both ends. She makes him feel like more than he is while he gives her everything he is and more.

.

They collapse against the sheets when it’s over and he strokes her hair carefully but fascinated with the mass of curls while she brushes his, finally regrown, from dark eyes slowly getting brighter and brighter.

.

She spins tensely when the hand grips her shoulder “Raina, been a long time” Coulson remarks “We’re taking you in.”

“No” she steps back but she has nowhere to go. They’ve planned how to corner her. “Stand down Raina, you’re outnumbered” May steps up, weapon ready. “Get the fuck away from my wife” a force pushed them back and when they regain their footing Ward’s there, side by side with Raina and the identical rings on their fingers shine.

“You’re married” Hunter is incredulous, he’s heard a lot of stories, and both looked rather offended. “And what if we are? There’s nothing wrong with that.” Raina says for them both “we’re quite happily married in fact” Ward adds quite proudly, hands intertwined.

“I feel like I’m seeing something wrong” Simmons comments over the comms “It’s very disturbing” Fitz agrees.  “Moved on fast, didn’t you?” May comments and he’s quick to respond “Shouldn’t you be rejoicing?”

“Darling, we’ve had a talk about riling people up for fun when they have weapons” Raina chastises him and he smiles affectionately at her “sorry sweetheart.” She had him wrapped around her little finger.

“Poor bastard” Lance mutters “I feel nauseous. That’s sickly sweet” Bobbi shoots him a look, the kind that only being married to him could achieve. “I think we should all calm down and go our separate ways. We won’t be a bother; we’re taking a little trip” Raina smiles sweetly at them all “and ignore any energy signatures, it’s nothing important” Ward adds cheerily.

.

“Are you ok?” Raina takes a seat on the couch next to Ward “Fine” she knows him better than to believe that of course and curls into his side. “Let’s get married” he breaks the silence eventually “what?” she laughs, looking up at him from the TV and he smiles now. “Let’s go get married” he repeats “It’s been a long day. You wouldn’t ask otherwise” she shakes her head, refusing to run into it when it’s been a tough day.

“Am I not allowed to want to marry the most beautiful, smart, resourceful, brilliant and amazing woman in the world who I happen to love?” he asks teasingly “When you get hit with very bad news the same day then no. There’s a week long waiting time” she replies.

He slides off the couch onto one knee, pulling off the chain from around his neck and unhooking the ring that hung from it. “Raina, will you marry me?” he asks seriously “you’re actually doing this?” she’s amused of course, and she wants to say yes. She doesn’t want it to be a regret more. “Of course sweetheart.”

“Ask me again later.”

.

“Just because we’re in public it doesn’t mean I won’t say no” she says dryly.

.

He looks up when Raina walks in “No” she doesn’t even give him a chance but he spins the laptop around with a smug grin. “I didn’t know who to ask so I guessed someone” Cal’s on the screen and at her silence Ward frowns “Did I do something wrong? Are you ok? I’m sorry if I’ve hurt you” he apologises immediately “I gave him my blessing, he’s planned it all” Cal pipes up.

She shakes her head at them fondly “you idiot” she smiles exasperatedly, the puppy he had taken in from the street bounding in carrying a box and sat at her feet. “You idiot” she repeats, bending to get it, the same ring waiting there in the box with a note on a little string ‘I love you, will you marry m’ she slips the ring on after reading the inscription.

“Peu importe la peine, vous avez toujours me sauver” she reads it smiling and neither of them have to translate it aloud, they both know what it means.

“So what have you planned?”

.

The day they find out the fate of his parents is the day she almost loses him. “Hey, hey, look at me Grant” she cups his face in both her hands “calm down, don’t lose yourself to it” She keeps her eyes locked with his, doesn’t dare look away.

“S.H.I.E.L.D killed him; they took him when he did nothing. They-they” he snarls “they took him in to the fridge, then they experimenting on him. They tried to find, extract and enhance his powers and in the process killed him” she finishes for him calmly despite how disgusted and angry she is too.

“Grant, look at me. It will be ok, just focus on me” she tells him feeling the heat of his skin, she feels it tighten under her grip and she knows she was losing him, he was letting himself slip and letting the rage take over.

“Stay looking at me, just look at me. Don’t think about anyone else” she lets her control go and shows who she’s become, something she only ever did around him “just stay looking at me” she holds his hands and doesn’t let go even when they get to their home.

“Sit” she orders and he takes a seat on the closed toilet seat, keeps his eyes on her like she was his life line and he was drowning. She takes off his jacket and shirt first, puts them to the side to wash. She doubts they can be saved now. Then his jeans, instructing him like a child.

She takes a wet cloth and starts wiping down his hands then his arms and his face to get rid of the blood. “Come on, in the shower” she sighs, stripping her own clothes and turning on the warm water.

She wipes the rest of the blood away under the stream of water “Let me” he takes the cloth from her gently and started washing her slowly and carefully. There was nothing sexual about this, this time every touch spoke of how much they cared for the other, they were looking after each other.

“Thank you” he whispers into her hair as they lay in bed that night.

.

The ceremony’s small but he’s planned it all. There are a few people they’ve met over the years and gotten to know well enough to name friends.  Kara’s there and even Cal makes it, she appreciated his apology for how he treated her and he gave her away.

Grant had sorted out everything, arranged it all and even left her an array of dresses to choose from with flower details somewhere on each.

.

“When we met I was…there’s no way to describe it. And I missed you completely, I was an idiot. But you? You saved me, you saved me then and you saved me in San Juan. You’re the reason I am still me and that ‘me’ is not just a monster. Without you I wouldn’t be me, I wouldn’t be happy; I might not even be alive. You make me someone better.”

.

“I didn’t want to care for you, at first you were just another pawn. Then I saw more in you and at San Juan…you didn’t turn away from me. When you didn’t need me you still stayed. When everything I wanted was done I found something new, I found a home”


End file.
